Free Summer Meals Outreach Strategy Development: Combating Hunger for Seattle Youth

Capstone students partnered with the City of Seattle’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and United Way of King County to develop outreach and promotional tools to help increase awareness of and participation in the free Summer Meals Program for children.

Team 1 devised a two-prong approach to appeal to both high school and elementary/middle-school students. They created a social media campaign with infographics and short-form content, as well as informational posters to be distributed across the city to garner interest from older students and their families. They also designed a toolkit for a Seattle Public School field day station that includes age-appropriate interactive activities to introduce younger children to the program and provide materials to share with their families.

Team 2 developed a sports engagement outreach toolkit with resources to help SFSP meal sites build partnerships with Seattle sports teams and secure incentives like athlete appearances, team merchandise, and even tickets to games. This type of engagement hopes to generate awareness of and excitement around meal site participation, attract more children and families to available food resources, and ultimately help reduce food insecurity among Seattle families during the summer months.

Community Partners: Sara Caplan and Lisa Bonine, United Way of King County, and Tina Skilton, City of Seattle Human Services Summer Food Service Program

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Project Type(s): Undergraduate Capstone

Author(s): Team 1: Aulla Elhassan, Priyal Gounder, Ryan Koppler, Tim Liu, Carmela Stewart, Cait Whittard // Team 2: Ezra Acevedo, Kyla Garcia, Ruweidha Godana, Emily Hyland, Nyenyezi Namwali, Jesse Palafox-Arceo

Program(s): Food Systems Major

Year: 2026

Adviser(s):

• Yona Sipos